“The well encountered a gross 75 meter oil column and a
gross 25 meter gas/condensate cap,” the Stockholm-based company
said in a statement today. “A drill stem test will now be
carried out to establish the flow properties of the discovery.”

The find, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north-west of Statoil
ASA (STL)’s Snohvit gas field, comes four days after OMV AG said it
found as much as 160 million barrels of oil and 40 billion cubic
feet of gas at the Barents Sea’s Wisting prospect, Norway’s
northernmost discovery. The finds may help boost confidence in
Norway’s Arctic region after Statoil in June delayed plans to
develop the Johan Castberg discoveries there because of costs,
tax increases on energy companies and lower resource estimates.

Norway’s oil industry is expanding into the waters off its
northern tip to compensate for dwindling production from aging
fields in the North Sea. The country’s crude production is
expected to drop for a 13th consecutive year in 2013 to less
than half a 2000 peak.

While no resource estimate was given for Gohta, the few
details given so far “could indicate substantial volumes,”
Swedbank First Securities analyst Teodor Sveen Nilsen said in an
e-mailed note. Based on an average pre-drill volume estimate of
160 million barrels of oil equivalent, the fair value per share
of the find is estimated to be worth 1.2 krona for Lundin, 1.2
kroner for Det Norske and 0.6 kroner for Noreco, he wrote.

Noreco, which has a 20 percent stake in license 492 where
Gohta is located, gained as much as 14 percent, the most in more
than 15 months. The stock traded 9.9 percent higher at 2.90
kroner as of 9:15 a.m. in Oslo.

Det Norske, which has a 40 percent stake in the license,
gained as much as 2.4 percent to 85 kroner in the Norwegian
capital while Lundin, which also has 40 percent, rose 1.7
percent to 144.60 kronor in Stockholm.